No. 2 Adelphi Panthers

Top Returner: A Devan Crimi
(Sr.)
Crimi starred on Adelphi’s last championship team as a
freshmen and helped usher the Panthers into their new era, leading
the Northeast-10, and ranking sixth in Division II, with 101 points
in 2014.

X-Factor: M Meg Brown (Gr.)
Brown, whose senior season ended after just two games due to
injury in 2014, brings a veteran presence to Adelphi's midfield.
The year before Brown, who has Division I experience (Binghamton),
had 42 goals and 54 points.

Devan Crimi is a key returner for
the powerhouse Panthers lineup. (Greg Wall)

Adelphi is back, which shouldn’t be all that surprising.
Anyone who’s seen Star Wars know it’s hard to keep a
good empire down. You can destroy the Death Star, they’ll
just build another.

But that empire rebuilt itself off screen, between movies. The
viewer didn't see that these things take time. Adelphi’s run
back to the top of Division II played out in front of everyone.

“What a lot of people don’t understand was how hard
it was,” said coach Rob Grella, the Adelphi alum who’s
spent the last three years rebuilding the Panthers on the fly.
“It was a lot of fun, but it was a challenge. And with that
challenge comes criticism. They say ‘Oh you were here, now
you’re here...’ I think we’re back on that level.
I’m not claiming we’re going to win 10 national titles,
but to be back here is important for the school.”

From 2009-11 the Panthers won three straight championships, and
lost just one game. Then their coach and a team of All-Americans
transferred to Division I Stony Brook. At the time Erica DeVito, an
All-American who stayed and a current Panthers assistant coach,
said they wondered whether they’d even have a team that
season.

They did field a team. Grella was hired later that summer and
Adelphi went 16-3 and reached the first round of the NCAA
tournament. It would have been a success at 100 other programs.

One year later, the Panthers were seconds away from the
championship game. Thanks to a stifling defense, highlighted
byCamille Rosellini’sfaceguard on
LIU Post’s Jackie Sileo, they nearly knocked off the
defending NCAA champions. Sileo finally got free with 5.6 seconds
remaining and scored the winning goal to give Post a 7-6
victory.

In the immediate aftermath the Panthers showed just how back
they were. They were mad. This wasn’t an underdog hanging
with the undefeated defending national champ. This was Adelphi
denied its right to return to the place it belonged.

“We were more upset that we fell short,” Grella
said. “We were more upset that we got that taste and we were
so close. We were a couple of seconds away. I know it’s stuck
with me for a year.”

Grella laughed as he started rattling off his third midfield
unit. It’s a luxury Adelphi hasn’t had in years.

"We haven't had that fourth, fifth, sixth midfielder," he
said.

It took a few years, but Adelphi finally feels like Adelphi
again. It all clicked in last year’s North Region semifinals,
when the Panthers finally defeated Le Moyne, by rallying from an
8-3 deficit.

“At that point we realized we could beat anyone,”
Grella said. “The attitude changed once they started
believing in themselves. As coaches we can only do so much.
That’s what we’ve been stressing. We’ll get you
there, but eventually you’re going to have to do it
yourselves.”

But coaching goes a long way, and Grella and his staff set the
example. Grella drives the 90 minutes plus from his New Jersey home
every day. He uses the time to talk to recruits and think about
ways to utilize that midfield.

The commute took a little longer one day in early September.
Politically-motivated lane closures approaching the George
Washington Bridge will do that.

“That was literally the worst drive I’ve had,”
Grella said.

So maybe there are some out there, like the governor of New
Jersey, who can still slow Adelphi’s empire down. But the
list gets smaller every day.

Lacrosse Magazine will continue its 2014 college lacrosse
preview throughout January and into February, with team-by-team
breakdowns of the top teams in NCAA Division I, II and III men's
and women's lacrosse. Follow the countdown at LaxMagazine.com/LMRanks and on twitter
at #LMRanks.